Student Captains
by J0j2
Summary: What happens when you mix our favorite Enterprise Crewmembers with s mall, annoying children sent to shadow them? LETS FIND OUT! Please R&R!
1. Kids on the Enterprise

Student Captains

Disclaimer: NO I do not in fact own these characters. But I can always write about them. Hah! In your face Roddenberry!

"StarFleet command to Enterprise, lieutenant Bothrin reporting." The guy's head came up on the screen of the bridge.

"Enterprise, Captain James T. Kirk here." Jim replied nonchalantly. They were going to go out from the star base after scheduled maintenance, this was probably just a call saying they were ready to go. How wrong the previous statement was.

"Captain, the graduating class of Starfleet 2268 as you know, there will be some of the kids picked for controlling the U.S.S. Linear."

"And?" Kirk said, bored with the re-orientation of things he was already aware of, and took a sip of the coffee in a little paper cup.

"Well, we've already chosen the ones who are going to have certain positions. They are gifted kids, captain. And since the Enterprise is at the top of the fleet, we're going to have them beam aboard and observe for a week or so." Kirk spit out his coffee, a little splattering on to an unfortunate Pavel Chekov.

Chekov exchanged a glance to Sulu, who looked half laughing at it, and half very sorry for him. "I'm sorry, Mr. Bothrin, but we cannot have…" he searched for the word, "rookies on the ship. We have very important matters on Gamma 2…we don't have time-"

"It says here, you were just in for maintenance and you currently have nothing on your agenda."

"But-" Kirk objected, trying to sound as in control of the situation as possible, but he came out more like a little kid not getting what he wanted.

"No buts captain. They're going to beam up in a half an hour. I'm sending onscreen a list of the positions they'll be shadowing. Lieutenant Bothrin out." Jim sighed and looked around the bridge, each one of his bridge members. Spock kept his normal, emotionless face, but he raised an eyebrow just a little as a sign almost to say, 'I don't want them here, Jim.' Also, Sulu, Chekov, Uhura and Scotty all exchanged glances. As if on queue, McCoy stepped in as the list showed up on screen.

"What's going on guys?" Bones said casually, totally unaware they were going to have kids following them like puppies.

Kirk scanned the list. "Bones, are you ready to have a trainee stalk you?"

"What?"

"You heard me. We're going to have some kids who are already chosen to be on the Linear and they want us to tutor them."

"You're kidding." McCoy spat in disbelief. "And you let this happen?"

"You think I wanted this?" Bones pondered this a moment. "Starbase's orders."

"Aw, captain, ya cannae!" Scotty objected. Even Spock seemed to keep his brows furrowed.

"Well, they're just kids. How hard can it be?" Uhura suggested. "_I _took a class on babysitting in junior high." She said proudly.

"Well we're not all brat watchers." McCoy pouted under his breath.

"It's happening whether or not we want it. I know that we don't want it already."

"Keptin, do we know how old they will be sir?" Pavel chimed in.

"No, but he said they were gifted so they're probably younger than most if they're shadowing." He replied, feeling sorry for himself and the rest of the crew.

"Captain, it would seem logical to stop pouting about the situation and resume current occupations. Or at least to think of what to do." Spock added. Even if he was totally against the idea, he was a Vulcan, so, dwelling was completely out of the question.

"Listen hobgoblin, we all know you don't want them here either, so let us at least complain while we still have some peace and quiet!" Bones yelled at Spock from his perch by the captain's chair.

"I was merely suggesting we stop ranting and make progress with our current positions."

"Come on guys. We don't have time for this. I s'pose I should make the announcement." He hit the button for entire ship communication. "Attention crewmen of all decks, there has been a recent order from star fleet and some of you are to show Starfleet students around and teach them things of your job. The crewmen are as follows." Then came a list of around nine people who did not work on the bridge, but with various jobs like engine maintenance, target sensors, torpedo phaser engineer and other things. Then came all Kirk's friends.

"Doctor McCoy, Lt. Uhura, Engineer Scott, Mr. Spock, Ensign Chekov, and Helmsman Sulu. At 1700 hours you are to meet in the assessment room. Kirk out."

"Now I guess all we can do…is wait here. Resume occupations until further notice." James Kirk commanded, and so did everyone.

XXXXXXX

The sound of the doors in to the Assessment room was extremely annoying and not to good to ease the annoyance that the Captain and other crewmembers were obviously feeling. Once everyone appeared to be filed in, with the exception of a few stragglers, Kirk began to speak.

"We are to have students follow us around for around a week. You are to show them the basics of your occupation as well as the instruments you work with. These students are 'gifted' and are to someday be working in the U.S.S. Linear, a ship almost identical to the enterprise. There will be plenty of time to get acquainted," he wanted to say too much time, "and you are to show them evasive maneuvers, the various codes and signals and help them find their way around the enterprise."

"They will be beaming up and going to the Orientation hall where you will meet your assistant. A federation representative will give you further instruction. Please find your way to there now. Dismissed." He said, as he walked off the small stage in the front of the room as people with various colored shirts got up and left, but Scotty, Bones and Spock came over to him to talk about the situation a little more.

"Aye, they're not going to be sleeping in our quarters are they?" Scotty said with a smile, trying to make the dreary captain laugh. He won at that game.

"No, they're going to be in the excess cabins for guests and ambassadors. I got more info. They're really young."

"Like…how young?" McCoy asked hesitantly.

"These kids have been classified geniuses for they're age. They're way younger then even Pavel." Bones slapped his head.

"I knew it."

"From a range of eight to fourteen." They all stared wide eyed at Jim. "Yes way." Spock had remained silent for most of it.

"It seems odd they are sending such under aged minors above on to the enterprise, Captain."

"Yes it does, but the Linear is going for an extremely long term mission. Eleven years. And they need all of them to be good and trained by the launch date, especially so they won't age in space much."

"Logical." He said, trying to at least find one way to make the situation better in his own fast paced, Vulcan brain.

They made their way down the hallway as some people way shorter then them could be seen down the hall. Some of them were very bulky, some chubby, some very tall actually. "Come on." He motioned his officers in. "ladies first." He said to McCoy who slapped his arm rather hard as a response.

They all got settled in the large room and Kirk and Spock were invited up to the stage. "Hello everybody. I am Federation Ambassador Cornelius Baron. As you already know, you have been called upon to show or shadow on the enterprise. The expedition will be for both scientific and tutorial studies. Everyone is to record, each day, a log of their opinion and information on how the study is going. This experiment is going to be for nine days. I am going to do a role call now of who is to be paired up with who." Mr. Baron informed as he took out a sheet of paper from his pocket.

He named some different people who Kirk had distant or no relations with, and then came the bridge.

"Head Surgeon Dr. Leonard Bones McCoy, you are paired with Ginger Broughton." As for the rest of them, the two stood up. Bones's eyes met an older girl with brownish red hair. She had a little nose piercing, a little black eye makeup and a look that reminded him of his daughter. Crap.

For about five seconds they made eye contact before the federation man began talking again. "Engineer Montgomery Scott, you are to be paired with Arnold Welton." Across the room was a kid about eleven, maybe a little older that locked eyes with Scotty. He was a big kid, not fat, just big. He had some good tanning, and looked very smart with his sandy hair.

Once again they sat down. "Communications Lt. Nyota Uhura, you are paired with Carrie Soren." And stood a slim, quiet looking girl with a brown pony tail. No older then nine so she looked. Uhura smiled at her across the room, and Carrie exchanged a sheepish look with her.

"Ensign Pavel Chekov, you are assigned to Melissa Bates." A girl who could easily be in fourth grade stood up. She had braided black pigtails with bright highlights with a flaring dress. Pavel was immediately scared.

"Helmsman Hikaru Sulu, you are assigned to George Conner." A kid with black hair, a little gelled and spikey stood up. He had an intense stare and you could tell he was a little bit rebellious. He seemed to be on the older end.

"Science Officer and First officer Spock, you are to be assigned to Kenneth Woodrow." Spock raised his eyebrows and head just a little to show he was to be the one the kid would be dealing with. A boy with wild blond hair stood up. Freckles dotted his face. Wild eyes and excited face, Spock knew this was _not _going to be easy.

"And Finally, Captain James Kirk, you are to be assigned to Jay Loquin." A boy with bright blue eyes and an arrogant stature stood up. His hair was chocolate brown, in a regular cut. A little tiny bit pointed, but handsome none the less. He was probably at the younger point. This kid had way to much charisma. He put his chin up a little and back down as if to say, yea, you're _my _buddy. I'm not yours. The mighty captain wanted to cry.


	2. Failing beginnings

Student Captains – Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own the star trek characters, but I DO own their buddies.

Bones McCoy made little effort to get through the crowd to Ginger. He didn't want to be here, and no kid was going to make him want to more. Especially not a kid with a nose ring.

She found him, but with a lot of delay. "Lets get this over with." She muttered under her breath.

"Come on, lets get out of this mad house." Bones said to Ginger as they weaved through the various people and finally got out to the hall. "So," he said a little awkwardly, "what are you studying?"

"I'm trailing you aren't I?" Ginger had a relatively low voice. It didn't come out snotty, but it the sarcasm was genuine.

"Doctoring?"

"Hello captain obvious!" she said as they walked down the hallway. "Where to?"

"The Medical Bay. Where're you from?" He asked, trying to make a little bit of an effort with her.

"Minnesota." She replied, hands in jean pockets, her dark green T-shirt sagging a little.

They entered the doors of Sickbay. All the beds were clean, no dead redshirts –good- and nothing scattered on the floor…oh crap. Slightly open was the good Doctor's whisky drawer. _Strictly for doctoring purposes! _He had left it open since he was feeling so sorry for himself to have a teenager tag along.

She saw it. She nodded her head a couple times and laughed. "Wow. Really?"

'Think fast, bones, think fast!' McCoy thought as his face fell and it was very obvious, but he still thought he might be able to cover it. "It's for patients in delirium. It…knocks them out." Ginger walked over the drawer and gently pushed it closed.

"Right." She smiled deviously. "Look, I'm Thirteen, soon to be Fourteen. I'm not a little kid like the rest of these midgets. I didn't want to be here and from the rum, clearly you didn't want to either." Ooh she was good.

"Well I guess you do know the first thing about doctoring." He smiled just slightly, knowing that the weight was off his back a little. "You ain't drinking any of that." He said, his Georgian accent _really _thick on his tongue.

"Trust me, I don't want to." She responded, making a little face that if you showed it to anyone, they would say, 'she just ate something morbid.'

"Good."

"So Lenny,-"

"What did you just call me?" Bones said, dreading his first name. Especially a pet name from an adolescent.

"You got a problem, Lenny?" Ginger said, provoking him just a little more.

"Do not call me Lenny. If anything you refer to me as Dr. McCoy." McCoy replied, some anger building in his voice. If this were a redshirt, or maybe a nurse, they would lay off. Not this chick.

She smiled deviously. Just hook and reel it in. "I'm fine." She said.

He gave her the Doctor stare. Ginger just smiled more. "What about you, Lenny?"

"How many siblings you got?" he asked totally out of the blue, letting the blue return his red face to a normal human complexion.

Ginger knew exactly why Leonard McCoy had asked. "One older brother, my friend."

Back in Georgia, McCoy had a younger brother. It was the war that raged on and on until Bones had graduated from med school. Back and forth, either verbally or physically. His brother was a year younger, but that didn't give him much advantage since his brother was his same height. Leonard was a shorter kid then most. Rough housing on the field in front of his house under that big oak tree. Good times, good times. Well, except for when his brother cracked his arm. That cast lasted a good six weeks. But casts are not to shabby for fighting. They're rock solid.

If she was a younger sister, Bones knew immediately this was going to be a very long nine days.

XXX

After a little more arguing, some showing Ginger around the sickbay, and more frustrating nicknames, they went to mess hall to eat dinner. There had been instructions sent through the intercom. You were to sit with your buddy, but you could sit anywhere. At least he could talk about the situation. Boy did he hate the federation.

Kirk, Spock, Scotty, Pavel, McCoy and their buddies all congregated at a fairly large lunch table. Ginger was not enjoying the experience considering she was paired up with some snarky old doctor, and now she was sitting a lunch table with kids at least two years younger than her. Displeased, she sat down at the table.

"So, how's the day going, everyone?" Kirk tried to sound relatively cheery.

"It was awesome! I got to see ectoblastic dilithium gasses and the effects of nuclear engineering on interior flooring!" Kenneth, Spock's buddy, announced, rather excitedly. Spock was rather proud that a nine year old earther had memorized that and caught on, but he was disgruntled to find the child was extremely loud and annoying.

"Kenneth, we are in an enclosed room. You are to keep the volume of your voice-" Spock prodded, only to be interrupted.

"l know!" he shouted, then stopped talking all together.

"Hey cutesy." Kirk's tag-along Jay said to Ginger. A series of things happened. First, Jay received a kick from Jim under the table, McCoy snickered under his breath and Ginger and Kirk exchanged glances. Hers saying, 'are you serious?' and the captain's sheepishly saying, 'sorry.'

The most disturbing part of that was Jay was in 3rd grade as they found out later in the night. He was the youngest kid on the expedition.

They got up, two at a time, and used to food generator to get whatever they wanted for dinner. The kids had to be shown how to use it, although Scotty's buddy had already taken one apart, and put it back together again. He knew it inside and out, rather literally.

Scott got a large sub sandwich while his buddy just got a bowl of broccoli and cheddar soup.

Kirk got up with Jay. You could see him scolding the little kid on the way to the food creator. Kirk came back holding a large steak and a medium sized salad, and Jay held in his grubby hands a giant piece of triple chocolate cake.

When they got back to the table, Jim took the cake from the child, replacing it with the salad. "First you have to eat your vegetables _before _you get to have dessert."

"But captain-"

"No buts. Eat." Jay picked at it a little with his fork, before proclaiming he could not, nor would not eat it. "No cake for you." Kirk responded nonchalantly before cutting and chewing another piece of juicy tenderloin.

McCoy and Ginger exchanged glances before getting up. "What do you want?" he said, looking through the catalogue of foods.

"I dunno. Um, I'll get a hamburger." Ginger replied, not too enthusiastically, but interested in the mechanism that automatically produced what you want. At home they still had cooking, but these things were all over the market, especially on the monogram vision.

Bones placed two chips in the machine, pressed a button and out popped a regular sized hamburger with all things you could possibly want on it off to the side. He himself got beef barley soup.

By the time they got back, the subject had fallen to something involving other planets' ambassadors, Latin, and tomatoes.

Chekov got a shish kabob and Melissa got a hot dog. "He's got a funny accent." Melissa said, pointing to Pavel. He remained silent. This girl was scaring the vodka out of him.

Finally, Spock got up with his bouncy child Kenneth. Spock got some Vulcan fruits and Kenneth got a Peanut Butter and Sardine sandwich with an ice cream sundae. "Hey, how come he gets dessert?!" Jay yelled, at the unfairness of it all. Nobody answered him, and he quietly continued to eat his leafy greens.

About five minutes later, Sulu and Uhura joined them. Uhura had an African dish and Carrie just got some chicken noodle soup. Sulu got a slab of salmon and George ate a char burger with a disgusting amount of catsup.

The conversation shifted uneasily sometimes, considering the kids needed to be part of it. George and Sulu seemed to be getting along fine. It turned out George had been in a fencing tournament prior to coming aboard, also Scotty and Arnold had spent the day cracking things open and rewiring an ancient device called a toaster. Uhura and Carrie were a good pair. The Bluetooth headset was right up her alley.

XXX

After a long, rather awkward day, all the kids were sent to the quarters to brush up and go to bed. Lights out was fairly early. That meant time to make her move. Ginger slipped out of bed and approached the door silently, placing her hand on the side and it quietly opened just a little, letting no light in to the room. She ran in to the elevator and went to the bridge. Time to listen in.

A man wearing a red shirt walked past. "Aren't you supposed to be in bed?"

"No, I lost something I left in sickbay." She replied smoothly.

"Oh, would you like an escort?" He asked.

"No, thank you." She replied with a sweet smile. "I can find things myself." He walked away. Score!

Through the door you could hear the crew talking about the day.

"Kenneth was a most fascinating child. He does show high standards of intelligence, but intellectually he is challenged." The Vulcan said, praising the kid who was so crazy.

"Jay's a different story. That kid's getting smooth on the crewmembers!" Kirk chimed in.

"He laid his grubby eyes on Ginger. Teach him some manners would you?!" Bones yelled.

"It's not my fault. His parents need the teaching."

There were some more good things that came, some bad things. McCoy was clearly angry with the nickname and confiding to his friends wasn't helping. They began calling him Lenny. Overall, Ginger was contented with the night, even though she had come here completely against her will. Her parents made her. Going on the Linear with all this toddlers would be a nightmare. At least she didn't have to be in charge of them all…but that left Jay. She was so _not _taking orders from that…ew. The idea just made her want to throw up.

"Keptin, Melissa is um…very exubewent." Chekov said.

"Pavel, it's easy to tell you're scared of her. Just say so." McCoy leaned back on the enterprise railing.

"Me? Scared of…a child?" Chekov didn't make a smooth recovery.

It was off topic now. All she wanted to hear was what the crew thought of the experience. Although she didn't want to be here, she decided to make the best of it. Now, back to the guest quarters to get some sleep.


	3. If kids are the future:Oh No

Student Captains – Chapter 3

An innocent redshirt walked by the guest quarters. He only needed a signature from another officer when a loud noise came from where the kids were. Frankly, this was worrying. He peered his head in as the door opened and in to his face came a pillow, flung at at least warp six. The redshirt flew back, his face knocking in to the wall and all the screaming and fun stopped as the peered over the guy.

Some kids poked at him. He twitched. This slowly became a game. "Who's poking the dead guy next?" one yelled.

"He's not dead you idiots." Ginger said, sounding annoyed, and in fact she was. Getting hit in the face at least nineteen times by eight year olds having a pillow fight was not her idea of a wake up call. "I want to snitch on you guys so bad…" she said, taking a pulse to see if a fluffy flying object had put him in to a coma. He was sitting in a fairly unnatural position and since she was a doctor, it was her job right?

George, (Sulu's tag-along) and Jay, (Kirk's buddy) made their way through the crowd. "Is he okay?" George asked.

"I don't know. He's breathing but he's unconscious. From a pillow."

"Let me rephrase. Will he be okay?"

"Maybe." George shot Jay a look.

"You threw it?" Ginger said, eyebrows raised, but not in surprise.

"Well…we were just doing-"

"I don't care. Wait'll Kirk hears about this." She said.

"No! Please don't tell!"

"Oh, I am so beyond begging kid. " Ginger responded, enjoying the ransom.

"Please!" he looked like a puppy who was too full of himself.

"Lets just see how it turns out." Ginger said before ordering kids to get the pillow out of the guys face, remove all feathers and get back in to their quarters, then threaten that if she got whacked one more time, they were all going to receive a broken wrist. The kids went back in, except George and Jay who stayed out hesitantly. "Just go. I don't want you any deeper than you already are. And your lucky I'm not-"

"I know I know…" Jay responded, clearly used to this.

They left before Ginger punched the communicator. "Ginger to Sickbay."

"McCoy here. What? Can't you see it's six o'clock in the morning?!" Bones said gruffly.

"Duh. But, I woke up to go to the bathroom and there's some guy in a red shirt knocked unconscious on the floor!"

"What?"

"You heard me. Get down here now!"

Xxx

Everything eventually worked out for the kids throwing pillows. A lot of the screeching came from Kenneth, Spock's tag-along. The kid had one heck of a case of A.D.H.D, but still, he was really smart. Except it wasn't so easy to agree with that when he hung around you neck and knocked down the game of 3-D chess the Vulcan had previously been playing. Hard to control was the king of understatements.

This was exactly the kind of thing Spock was not used to. And did not like. At all. There had been times where he had risked his life, thrown soup on the wall, displayed emotion enough to convict him in a court case, but he would trade that in if he didn't have to deal with a monkey that was coincidentally shaped like a human boy.

The previous day had been a nightmare when he wasn't contained or fascinated by something. A flask of Kalimstraoxide, also known as an extremely explosive material had been tipped over. Even so, only a drop had spilled. That drop blew up an entire experiment.

Kirk was not good with kids either, but when he was around, Jim's effect on little mister attention span of a goldfish was better than a logical Vulcan. Kirk could manipulate him pretty well in to thinking holding a piece of paper was extremely important to the task at hand. Spock caught on and the hell that broke loose previous was much more manageable.

But back to Kenneth's smart side. He could recite the entire table of elements, then tell you anything about each of them. Backwards. In pig Latin. He was homeschooled up until Starfleet so the social awkwardness was noticeable. He didn't go very well around other kids his age, but Ginger did have a certain tolerance, as did a kid named tom, Mellissa (who would make a bunch of little contests Kenneth found intriguing.) and finally Carrie who was quiet and equally as smart, although she didn't showcase it with hysterics and craziness. Spock would easily trade with Uhura.

Putting Jay and Kenneth in a room was a bad idea. While Kirk and Spock played chess, Jay ended up swearing at Kenneth because Kenneth had bit him, and to make it worse, Kenneth was now crying. Nice job guys.

Kenneth also had his own little assortment of toys. He had some little cars and other things. Ones that brought Spock to his grave were the things that made noise. Endless, horrible noise. Badly, he had gotten the urge to death grip this child, just to shut him up for a precious moment.

"Spock, what's 275 to the fifth power divided by 9378 multiplied by the square root of pi?" Kenneth asked energetically, another way of trying to test his buddy.

"Sixty-four to the twelfth power point one nine two." Spock replied, nonchalantly, but a tad of annoyance lingering in his voice, just as well as challenging. Maybe this could become an occupation of time. Something the captain would call a game. "What would 705 times 946 be?" he asked back, continuing to fiddle with the device he held in his hands.

"666930. Eeeasy! Gimme a harder one!" Kenneth demanded.

"9382 to the 59th power."

"umm…" Kenneth sat for a minute, before coming up with an incredibly long number.

"Divided by 19?" Spock asked, again with little effort.

"8372759!" Kenneth shouted excitedly.

"Incorrect. The correct answer would be 8372759 _point _988153."

"I was close!" the boy protested.

"But it must be exact."

Kenneth pouted a little before the game continued.

XXX

Jim stepped through the doors of Sickbay, much to Bones's alarm.

"Whoa-my…what happened to you?!" The doctor said to a totally wasted Captain Kirk.

Kirk darted his eyes quickly over to the charismatic kid following him. Jay walked in, sniffed the air and decided he didn't like it. He hated the smell of a doctor's office. He also really hated doctors. Isn't that great!

"Can we go?" Jay whined, tugging at Kirk's shirt.

"No." he said adamantly. Bones walked across the room to his whisky cabinet, and pulled the bottle carefully disguised as some sort of anti bladderal inflammation toxin, before pouring his beat friend a glass. Ginger then appeared in the door way.

"Oh great." She sighed before making a beeline across the room and aiming for the other part of it, escaping the company.

"You're staying." Bones growled as he caught her t-shirt.

"Why?" She said, angered that she had to stay with two people who were just a step up from maggots on her 'to-talk-to' list.

"Just sit down." He said, pulling her in to a chair.

Kirk finished off the rest of the crude drink as McCoy continued to do paper work. "There's some alien space craft off deck seven and we're not aloud to bring it on. It's small enough. Actually, it's tiny. But we can't!" he said, annoyed about the kids.

"Yea Jim, lets beam aboard an alien space craft! What a great idea!" he said, voice thick and rich with sarcasm.

"But nothing's happened in _weeks_!" he complained, trying to sound as adult as possible in front of Ginger and Jay.

"Why could you possibly want to bring aboard something that could kill everyone on here?" Ginger said, going over to the little refrigerator hidden in the bowels of sickbay.

"Honestly Jim, if another redshirt dies, that's going to look horrid on my record." Bones rolled his eyes before refilled Kirk's glass and soon after, his own.

"Well at least there would be some action!" He protested.

"I wanna see someone get hit by a lazer beam, I dunno about you guys." Jay said, supporting Kirk. Sadly, Jay had no good points to offer and was sort of going more against Jim then with him.

"I don't care if you kill us all. As long as you get sued, fine by me." Ginger said, popping the cap of a grape soda buried beneath the endless collection of whisky. "By the way, is this even legal?" she referenced the stash.

"Shuddup."

"Lenny."

"Shut up you brat!"

"Alright Lenny." She grinned mischievously. Ah, the wonders of being a younger sister.

Xxx

Later than night, after Ginger had silently checked in on the crew and went to bed, the members continued talking.

"I can't stand another day. And it's only been two!"

"C'mon Jim, they're not _that _bad." McCoy actually admitting he liked Ginger? Jim rolled up his sleeve, revealing a little bite mark to Bones. "Nevermind." No such luck.

"Kenneth is extremely hyper active. To an extent most unappealing." Spock commented, also exhausted and annoyed.

"That monkey of yours? Ha. You got stuck with a kid on a sugar high." Bones laughed at Spock's misfortune.

"I do not necessarily see why it is funny, especially that the child following you around appears to have a small piece of metal on her nose." And hence the nose ring was addressed.

"Says the monkey trainer."

"You call Kenneth a monkey right? Well Jay's a vicious lion. That kid is going to kill me. I think he actually wants control of the enterprise! Did you see this?" he showcased his scar on his arm.

"Yea, we all did. And it's beautiful. So please, show it again." McCoy said, annoyed with Jim's fishing for sympathy.

"It hurts really bad!" the captain said defensively, openly admitted he had been hurt by an eight year old child.

"Oh, should I kiss it for you?" Bones shot back, now more pissed off then ever.

Kirk just shot him a look.

"Aye, well Arney's pretty smart. He's can take a phaser apart and put it back together. Pretty impressive for a lad his age. Of course when I was that young, I could take apart a pinball machine, but I ain't braggin'." Mr. Scot happily inquired more about his buddy.

"Carrie is excellent at everything up at the desk here." Uhura chimed in. "She also has read a lot of literature. She read 'Back Again'! That book was written by Hyfo Delaropa! That's a Romulan philosopher!" Uhura was clearly pleased that she could have a full length literature circle with her tag along.

Pavel and Sulu were busy talking about their days with eachother, not bothering to listen in on Kirk's complaints. They already heard enough of that.

But, as much as they all complained or whined about the experience, it still wasn't that bad for them to interact with kids. Uhura certainly thought so. But Kirk didn't.

* * *

Sorry. I'm going to do more with Pavel, Sulu, Uhura and Scotty later. Nao, I just REALLY needed to focus on Kirk, Spock and McCoy. Hope you like it!


	4. Shiny Objects and Grubby Fingers

Student Captains – Chapter 4

A/N: I finally got around to writing more in this story. Sigh, the rest of this was written about four months ago and I recognize it was a little OOC, let's hope I can fix that! And also – if you find little ugly, nitpicky mistakes from previous chapters, just remember this was before I learned practically everything about the show – (And I'm still learning.)

XXXX

"This is the warp drive?" Arnold breathed, eyes wider than baseballs. He stared at the chamber like it was a gift from god.

"Aye, isn't she beautiful?" Scotty sighed, resting a strong hand on the kid's shoulder. "I keep her in tip top shape."

"What's it's top warp speed?" Arney asked excitedly.

"Lad, it's not an 'it', she's a she." Scotty said, splaying his hand to motion towards it. "Ya treat her like you would a lady."

Arnold grinned wide. "She's gorgeous." He whispered, smitten.

"I'd certainly agree-" suddenly there was a loud yelp from a different part of the engine room.

Mr. Scott and the child that stood at his side exchanged glances before running to see what it was.

There towards the entrance was one Mr. Spock and Captain Kirk, buddies and all. Jay crossed his arms and glared angrily at Kenneth who sat, glasses glinting in the light, with eyes watering. He held his wrist on the floor.

"What is going on here, Captain?" Scotty cried, staring at the spectacle.

James Kirk bit his lower lip, embarrassed he couldn't keep his monkey from killing anyone, "Jay, stop that! Biting people is not a way to solve problems!"

Jay stuck out his chin. "Then I s'pose I should use diplomacy, just like Captain Tracy and get my ship blown up!" he yelled.

"That's it. You don't talk back to a star ship captain. We're leaving the engine room." Kirk said with forced adamancy.

"No way! I'm not leaving!"

"Then _behave _yourself." Jim said through clenched teeth.

Jay stuck his tongue out like he wanted to throw up over him. Kenneth remained sniffling on the floor with an identical bite mark to Kirk's.

Scotty and Spock looked at each other and Jim's face went a light color of pink. "Come on! I wanna see the warp drive!" Jay said, fists at his side, moaning.

Jim, overpowered, walked over to the engine, Jay on his tail.

Kenneth sniffled, and got up, also wanting to see the object.

Spock following, finishing up the line as Scotty and, after, Arnold ran down to make sure nothing had happened.

Too late.

Jay was touching it with his little hands leaving finger prints and…so many smudges! This would take at least a half an hour to clean up!

"Lad, ya can't go around touching this!" Scotty said, almost yelling.

Jay jutted his chin up once again. "Sure I can. I'm gonna be a star ship captain, and I'm with the captain." Kirk squeezed his eyes shut before opening them.

"Jay, Mr. Scott an officer you are to refer to with respect. He is far older than you and you need to learn some _manners, _mister. We're leaving."

"But –"

"We're _leaving_." Kirk began to walk out. "That's an order." Jay, resigned, threw his shoulders forward and slumped over, pouting.

"Hmph…" They walked out.

Kenneth's eyes were still bleary but he stood in awe of the massive cylinder containing something like purple lightning.

Timidly, but composedly, Spock asked, "Would you like a bandage for that wound, Kenneth?"

Kenneth looked back up at his Vulcan superior and bobbed his freckled face.

"Mr. Scott." Spock nod as he walked by, on their way to sickbay.

After they left, Scotty and Arnold stared at the Warp Drive, both filled with misery. "Well…" Scotty said, defeated. "We'd better start shining.

XXXXXX

The doors to sickbay squealed open to reveal a girl on a bio bed, waiting as McCoy and Ginger fixed up a tincture for the hypospray that would soon be injected.

McCoy turned casually to see who was at the door. "And what do I owe this honor, Spock?"

Kenneth stood clutching his wrist. "The captain's designated shadow has bitten into the flesh of Kenneth."

Bones sighed. "Great."

"The kid tries to get a date with me, throws a tantrum because he can't eat a piece of cake and now bites another child." Ginger throws her head up to the sky, "God, why me?"

"Well _you're_ going to bandage him up." McCoy said, pointing over to him. "I need to finish the lymopha solution now."

Ginger sighed under her breath and went over to a cabinet that held the bandaging material.

"Where is it?" She asked Kenneth, who pointed to the scar.

She applied a little bit of disinfectant and then was about to put on the bandage when Kenneth said, "Is that cotton or polytant?"

"Cotton." Ginger said and started putting it on.

"Stop!" he drew his hand away, "You should be using a disinfected, iodine saturated polytant bandage. That is most effective for a scar."

Ginger glared up at her with razor sharp brown eyes, "Are you applying to be a doctor, Kenneth?" she said, her tone even and calm.

"No, I'm applying to be a physics, command and science officer." He said.

"Then why don't you leave the doctoring to _me_." She said sharply before firmly taking his arm with her free hand and applying the cotton bandage.

Bones glanced at Spock, the Vulcan looking oddly amused. "What?" he asked.

"Nothing Doctor, I was merely fascinated by the odd coincidences of fate and similarities of these occurrences." He said.

McCoy rolled his eyes. "Gibberish as usual."

"I would argue, Doctor, that it is not Gibberish. It is the spoken language of English and I am surprised you would-"

"Just shut up, Spock." He sighed before touching the tip of the Hypo into his patients arms and relaxing to it's hiss. She nodded and grinned. "Thank you, Doctor McCoy."

The Doctor gave a little smile. "Anytime, but let's not make it soon." He said, "Bye, Lea."

Lea waved back before walking out the doors. McCoy turned his attention to ginger. "Done?"

"Just about." She said before adding a tiny bit of medical tape and standing back up.

"Let's have a look." Bones knelt down to the fourth grader's height and examined the bandage. "Pretty good," Ginger seemed to lighten a little at the approval, "Of course you'd be doomed if you didn't know how to put on a band aid." He added before sitting back down at his desk.

"Shut up, Lenny."

It still wasn't very funny.

In the middle of the bout of snarky comebacks and sarcasm, Kenneth and Spock made their quiet entrance out of the sickbay, unnoticed.

Spock thought to himself silently, '_The resemblance is uncanny._'

XXXXXXXXXX 

Well, hoped you liked chapter four!

Please R & R, ideas are widely accepted and appreciated for where this story should go…and other stuff! If you like it, I love comments! Make my ego even bigger! You know you want to! JUST CLICK THAT LITTLE BUTTON.


	5. Of Manners and Doctors

Student Captains – Chapter 5

It wasn't a question anymore.

Even if the Captain was forced to carry around a bouncing third grader, he would have to teach him some manners – but of course (like most things the captain did), he wouldn't be doing it alone.

The third shift was over and he went striding into sickbay.

"Ugh, Captain why are we here?" Jay complained. McCoy came into the room, using a rag to wipe off his apparently wet hands. Jay crinkled up his nose. "It smells weird in here."

McCoy raised an eyebrow, "Y'know, you don't smell any better." He shot back. "What can I do for you, Jim-boy?"

Kirk motioned with his index for him to come over, and whispered in his ear the task at hand. McCoy shoved away.

"No way in the devil's own kitchen am I doing _that_! You're on your own, Jim!" he threw his rag onto a bio bed.

"Bones?"

"What?"

"That's an order." The captain smiled like a fox.

"I hate you…"

XXX

"First lesson in manners training –"

"Captain, why do I have to learn this stuff? I came here to learn how to command a starship, not how to say please and thank you!" Jay interrupted, slouched over, whining.

"You know why you need to learn this stuff?" McCoy asked, "Because you're a miserable _brat _that doesn't know how to talk to people in a civil manner!"

"Sure I do!"

"Poppycock." McCoy spat.

Jay stuck out his tongue.

"First lesson in training," Kirk cut in, shortly before being interrupted once more.

"Is not sticking out your _tongue_ at other people." Bones said, tone icy.

Jay didn't pay any attention to him and kept eyes trained on Kirk. "The first lesson is using the golden rule."

A farting noise flew out from his mouth. "I'm eight, almost nine years old, I know what the golden rule is." Jay threw his head up to the ceiling.

"You do?"

"Yea. Treat others how you wanna be treated." He crossed his arms.

"Do you follow it?"

"Yea."

"Then why did you bite Kenneth?" Kirk asked. Bones saw where this was going and nodded his head. Ginger sat on the side and grinned slightly.

"I dunno, he was being annoying." Jay shrugged.

"Well if you're being annoying, should I bite you?" Kirk said, tilting his light brown head of hair.

"Sure, I don't care." He said.

"Would you rather I bite you or not bite you?"

"I don't care."

"No, you have to make a choice." Kirk said.

"This is stupid!" Jay cried.

"Make a choice, Jay." Kirk said calmly.

"I going tell the admiral this is the dumbest thing ever!" Jay yelled at the unfairness of it all. "I said I didn't care!"

McCoy snickered softly before walking over to a cabinet and taking out a piece of the contents. "You have to make a choice, Jay." The hypospray glinted in the light.

Ginger, laughing, put her head in her hand.

"I don't want you to bite me…" Jay said nervously.

McCoy crossed his arms, idling holding the shot, pursing his lips, pleased.

"Well then _you're _not using the golden rule." Kirk said.

The boy laughed, "I don't care!" he stuck out his tongue at Kirk.

Jay thought about this and it seemed like an overload for his little brain. "Anyway it doesn't matter! In four years no ones gonna care if I bit someone!" he said defensively.

"You know what I hear, Jay?" Ginger said slyly, getting up from across the room. "That they don't let kids who have violent records into Starfleet."

Jay's face drained. "What?" he said, voice taken away.

"That's right." She shrugged convincingly, "We just haven't reported you yet."

"You don't got any proof!" Jay yelled.

"Sure we do. We have Kenneth, Kenneth's bandage, the report, the pictures–"

"You ain't got any pictures!"

"Sure we do." Ginger said. "Every time someone gets an injury in sickbay you have to photograph it." She told him, "I think I'll go comm. the admiral right now." She turned around and walked to the door.

His eyes got wide and scared. "Don't tell!" he cried.

Ginger turned around slowly. "I'm telling."

"I command you! Don't tell!" he said. It was funny – a third grader commanding an eighth grader.

"I'm still telling." She turned back around.

"Don't tell!" he pleaded.

"Hm," she said, facing him again, "maybe not, if…"

"If what? Anything!" he got down on his knees. This was hysterical, Ginger thought. Little kids are so gullible.

"Well, first you have to apologize to the Captain and the Doctor, and never stick your tongue out at anyone again." Jay nodded furiously and stared back up at her.

"Well?" she said.

"What?"

"Go." She motioned towards the superior officers.

Jay sighed. "I'm sorry…" he said, head bowed over to the captain.

"_And?_"

He looked up at Bones who sat there expectantly, overly exaggerating his annoyance.

"I'm sorry, Doctor."

Ginger grinned but the smile vanished instantly as he turned back around, and turned into a stern expression. "Next, you have to never bite someone again."

"Hmph." He pouted. "Fine."

"No pouting – you know what, I think I should tell." She was about to turn back around.

"No!" he cried as loud as he could.

"What's the magic word?" she said.

Jay sighed, very annoyed with the ransom, but more concerned about his ego and promised position. "Please don't tell!" he said.

She smiled. "That's what I thought." She nodded and turned back to him. "I won't tell. Now go back to you quarters, you're not to disturb the captain for another hour." Ginger said.

"But-"

"I can still tell."

Jay dashed out the back door.

Kirk and McCoy stood there, standing at the girl with the brownish red hair and nose ring like she was an angel.

"You both owe me big time." She said, and walked back into the sickbay office.

XXXXXXXXx

A/N: Hope you liked that little segment! Sorry, it's not the funniest of my work, but it needed to be done. Any ideas for Ginger's terms and conditions, just click the review button. Which characters would you guys like to see more of?


	6. Hide and Seek

Student Captains – Chapter 6

A/N: SO SORRY FOR THE DELAY. I'm not very punctual. But, by popular -or more like one person's- demand, a taste of Melissa for you!

"Pavel, Pavel, Pavel, Pavel…" The repetitive sound was emitted from a bouncing nine year old.

"Vut Melissa?" Chekov finally turned around, and yelled at her. She didn't seem to care about his anger.

"Our shift is ooover!" She said in a sing-songy voice. "C'mon, lets go play dress up?"

Half groaning, half squeaking, he said, "Aren't you a little old for zat, Melissa?"

She looked from person to person, "They don't know that!" she made a little giggle with blush to match. She snatched his hand with a grip that was far too strong for a girl of that age to have. "C'mon, c'mon, c'mon-"

"Fine!" Chekov surrendered, and Sulu cast a glance to his poor friend and said with a sympathetic face,

"Send me the photos."

Whimpering, Chekov was lead out of the bridge and into a dress.

It'd been an early shift for James Kirk. He got up out of bed, washed up and was feeling good – and then remembered he had to rouse his little pain in the neck.

He threw back his head and asked whatever was up there, 'why me?' and then went on his way to the children's quarters. When he went to the side of Jay's bed, there was a lump under the pillows. Jim put a hand over it and shook it vigorously.

No response.

Peeling back the covers, what was revealed were three pillows. And no brat.

This couldn't be good.

Running up to the bridge, trying (and failing) to look calm and collected, he pushed the comm.. "Jay Loquin, Report to the bridge immediately. Jay Loquin."

A response hailed him immediately after. "You lost him?" McCoy laughed through the speaker.

"Get off the line, Bones!" he flicked the switch to end the transmission.

Kirk put his forehead to his hand, this whole ordeal was giving him a headache. Repeating his message, he then added, "To any crewmembers, if you catch sight of Jay Loquin, comm. the bridge immediately. Thank you."

The transmitter beeped. He stabbed his finger on the button and Spock's voice came through. "Captain, Kenneth is not in his quarters either."

"I bet their in the same place. Spock, meet me in Rec Room four, be there in a minute."

"Yes captain, Spock out."

"Sulu, you've got command."

"But sir, you could just send a search party-" Sulu objected.

"I have my reasons, helmsman. And you have your orders."

"Yes sir."

Kirk scurried out of the bridge and into the turbo lift. After getting off he ran to the Rec Room to find his first officer sitting there, punctual as ever. "Where do you think they are?"

"I do not know Captain. Although we could ask the other children if they saw anyone leaving."

"Alright. You question the kids, I'll go look. I have an okay idea for where they might be."

"What, Captain?" Spock said almost dumbly. He seemed suddenly ruffled.

"You heard me perfectly fine Spock. Go ask around, I'm carrying my communicator incase you need me. See you soon, I hope." And with that he trotted off the other way.

Dealing with children had never been a strength of Spocks'. As a child he had been the center of cruel jokes and laughter because of his mother's humanity. As an adult he had tried to become as Vulcan as possible – emotionless, unfeeling. Although his friends, Jim and McCoy, continued to remind him of his failure as a Vulcan, because they could see through his neutral mask.

But being around kids was just plain awkward.

He was mildly aware of how the children saw him. A tall, serious man who had neither intention nor time for mingling. He was viewed that same way by many a crew of the enterprise as well.

This made it difficult for him to talk to children. He didn't have a good time in childhood and the irrational state of mind of Vulcan children – much worse, human children – overwhelmed him.

Why did Jim assign him _this_?

They'd crossed paths with beings that'd like to suck the life out of them for experiments, they'd hunted down a lava monster that ate through rock and people, they'd even saved the universe as we know it once or twice over – but talking to sticky fingered earth kids was beyond him.

Hopefully, this would all be over in a week.

Spock entered the children's quarters. It was still fairly early and half of them were still sleeping, although some stirred on their beds, fidgeting with music pods and whatnot. The Vulcan approached a girl who, in turn, was looking at him. He remembered now, this was Ginger. McCoy's assistant.

No, he was not in the mood for sarcasm, but neither did he want a bedwetting tot who probably didn't speak language quite fluently. Besides, making friends (especially with children) wasn't really in his skill set.

"Ginger, I have come to ask a few questions."

She looked at his eyes with a factor of coolness and uncaring. "Yea?"

"Did you take note of Kenneth and/or Jay leaving this room prior to now?"

Ginger almost wanted to say '_now again in english' _ but something told her this probably wasn't the right person to mess with. In fact, she had heard the annoying voices of squeaky boys.

"Yea. They were talking around two-ish. Keeping me up."

"Two-ish, Ms. Broughton?"

"I forgot we're on this stupid spaceship time. About fourteen hundred hours. They left a little later."

"Did they come back?"

"No." She replied, thinking about any noises she heard.

"What were they speaking about?"

Ginger sighed on her bunk. "I don't know. Something about pulling a prank. And girls." She exhaled and put her face in her palm. "I'm going back to sleep."

Spock found no better cue than such to tell him to get the heck out of there. Although he'd never 'pranked' anyone before, he knew the meaning of the word quite well from childhood experiences.

Instantly he was aware that the next few hours were not going to be fun.

A/N: Sorry. I don't update nearly enough. Suggestions for what's going to happen…perhaps a PLOT TWIST? I got nothing, lol. Reviews are always cherished and make my day that much better.


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